The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East

Including the famous Pyramid Texts, Sacred Books of Early Literature of the East provides historical context and accurate translations of creation myths from Ancient Egypt. Pulling from the Pyramid Texts, four of the dozens of creation myths are accepted as the most popular. These tales were associated with cults of particular gods in specific Egyptian cities: Hermopolis, Heliopolis, Memphis and Thebes. The Hermopolis myth focused on the nature of the universe before any creation began. Eight gods represented the qualities of the ocean. These gods were viewed as water dwelling creatures and separated into male and female groups, where the men were depicted as frogs and the women as snakes. After a large conflict erupted between the two groups, a pyramid appeared and the sun emerged, lighting the world. In Heliopolis, creation was attributed to Atum, a god who created other deities who represented and took care of particular properties or items in the world. Atum made Shu and Tefnut, the air gods, by spitting and sneezing. Shu and Tefnut in turn produced the earth god, Geb, and the sky goddess, Nut. These two had four children to complete the necessities of creation: Osiris, the god of fertility; Isis, the goddess of motherhood; Set, the god of male sexuality; and Nephthys, the female complement to Set. Ptah, the god of craftsmen, was the chief creator in the myth from Memphis. Ptah was able to visualize his creations in his mind, translate his ideas into words, and allow the physical product to appear. In this way, the god produced other gods, man, woman and all other things. Theban theology states that Amun created the world and all things in it, but was actually separate from the world, making the other gods part of him and leading to his ultimate crowning as supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon.